Techno babble from an IT guy named Harry

 Credit to Ryan Block for the image.

Just when I thought corporations and their lawyers couldn’t get any dumber, I’m proven wrong.  There’s been two incidents in the last few days that show just how out of touch most corporations care.  First, Creative sent a Cease and Desist to an independent developer for writing working Vista drivers for some of their products.  (Warning: This post is high on internet dramaboy-ism.)

Then our friends at T-Mobile send a Cease and Desist to Engadget for using the color magenta.  Apparently the color magenta is trademarked property of Deutsche Telekom.  Who knew?  Anyway, Engadget and the Internets are fighting back.  Engadget is “Painting the Town Magenta”  and others are joining in solidarity.  I’m joining in on the fun because I can’t resist a meaningless internet revolt.  Besides, someone has to stand up against the over-excited corporate lawyers.

So for today, I’m painting the blog magenta.  And I’d like to say to Creative and Deutsche Telekom in the words of Ben Stern: “Don’t be stupid you morons.”

It’s extremely important for IT guys and gals to understand where the candidates stand on technology issues.  I am going to link to each of their technology pages here.  Overall, I am disappointed with the lack of focus on technology.  The Democrats are much better than the Republicans.  All of the Democrats except Kucinich make a mention of technology or “innovation.”  Barack Obama is the only candidate to feature technology as an issue on his website.  Mitt Romney is the only Republican to have information about technology on his website, but it’s not an issues page.  I linked to it anyway.  Have a look:

Democrats

• Barack Obama: http://www.barackobama.com/issues/technology (Includes speech at Google)
• John Edwards: http://www.johnedwards.com/issues/innovation  (A few sparse comments) 
• Hillary Clinton: http://www.hillaryclinton.com/feature/innovation (Only a couple paragraphs)
• Dennis Kucinich: I can’t find anything obvious or through search.

Republicans

• Mitt Romney: http://www.mittromney.com/News/In-The-News/TechCrunch (Interview with TechCrunch) 
• Rudolph Giuliani: I can’t find anything obvious or through search.  Did somebody say 9/11?
• Mike Huckabee: I can’t find anything obvious or through search.
• Duncan Hunter: I can’t find anything obvious or through search.
• John McCain: I can’t find anything obvious or through search.
• Ron Paul: I can’t find anything obvious or through search.
• Fred Thompson: I can’t find anything obvious or through search.

Based on whether the candidates feature technology, Obama and Romney are the leaders for their party.  Obama is the only candidate to feature technology as an issue, so he is the leader.  If you can find information that should be added, let me know.

Check this email out.  It came from our Trend Micro support rep.  They are acting like the reported Electronic Jihad virus might be catastrophic, even though they don’t know if it will work.  Their last sentence is the most bizarre because of its alarmist overtone and misspelling.  Let paranoia reign!

Dear PSP Customer,

Real-world terrorists are once again threatening to take their jihad (Holy War) to cyberspace. The notorious Al-Qaeda has threatened to launch a Web attack on Western anti-Muslim Web sites on the 11th of November, according to DEBKAfile, an online military intelligence magazine. An attack like this could be unleashed via the Electronic Jihad Version 2.0 software, which is not actually new and has been around for about three years now. The said software is capable of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. It is also configurable and flexible, which makes it easy for cyber-terrorists to be more effective in the said attacks. Detailed Malware description: http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/grayware/ve_graywareDetails.asp?GNAME=HKTL%5FDAHIJ%2EA&VSect=Td
Researchers across the industry have raised quizzical eyebrows as similar threats have turned out to be a dud, like the cyber attack that never happ ened against U.S. banks and financial institutions in December 2006. However, such software was recently discovered by Trend Micro researchers. The hacking tool, which is detected as HKTL_DAHIJ.A, arrives as an installer package and may be downloaded from a remote site. This hacking tool connects to a URL for verification purposes. After successfully establishing a connection, it downloads a list from several URLs. The said list, which contains another set of URLs, is used by the affected system to launch Denial-of-Service (DOS) attacks for the so-called e-jihad.

I received an InfoWorld article called “Microsoft exec: Desktop application software is not dead.”  The short story is that Microsoft claims that Google and others cannot provide the same level of service and quality through web based apps as Microsoft can through installed apps.  While Microsoft is technically correct in the short term, this will change.  Let me predict what Microsoft is going to do right now.  Microsoft will develop a fully functioning version of Office.  Then they will market it as a brilliant idea that they thought of and perfected.  Microsoft will claim that they did it first and they did it best, when in reality neither will likely be true.  Until then, expect Microsoft to deride Google, IBM, Sun, and others.  What’s new?

Tom Yager of InfoWorld did an exhaustive review of the Blackberry 8300 and 8800, as well as several alternatives.  This is a great resource for anyone considering an alternative to Blackberry.

Major lulz

Major lulz

Major lulz

pwned

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1776175/

Apple released Safari 3 Beta for Windows today and the link got over 8000 Diggs.  I just can’t understand why.  Who cares if there is another browser for Windows?  Is it just BS Apple fanboy hype?  Is it Windows users that are excited to have another alternative?  Windows only users have no idea what Safari is.  I can’t imagine that they’d be so excited about it. 

I’m also wondering what this means for Apple, Windows, potential future browser wars. 

Apple must have learned that there is more money to be made where 90%+ of internet users reside rather than with their 5%.  I find it interesting that Apple created Safari for Windows.  It’s the first time that I remember (please correct me if I’m wrong) Apple creating an app for Windows that wasn’t either coupled with hardware (iPod) or required for compatability purposes (Quicktime).  Apple seams to be spreading out from their little closed world of Macs, iPods, etc.

And does Windows need another browser?  Maybe.  IE has been badly neglected by Microsoft.  IE7 is working fine for the sheeple, corporate environments, and MS fans.  Other than that, it’s lacking in innovation.  Firefox has been developed relentlesy and it has paid off (33.7% browser share in May).  Apple is a much bigger name than Firefox and they might be able to steal some browser share (currently at 1.5%).

So is this the first shot in the new browser war?  That’s up to Microsoft.  Do they want to develop IE anymore?  It doesn’t seem that way.  Is IE still important to Microsoft’s success?  I don’t think so unless Firefox and Safari intentionally don’t work with MS technologies.

Last night I witnessed the digital equivalent of the LA Riots.  You probably know the story already, so I am going to give you my take.  Someone posted a 2 month old  hex code that somehow cracks HD-DVD DRM on digg.com.  The code was deleted.  Then someone reposted it.  It got 15K+ diggs.  It was deleted and Digg.com users went nuts.  Digg’s CEO pulled a Rodney King and asked people to “give peace a chance.”  That didn’t work out so well.  The site was inundated with stories that included the code soon after.  Anything that wasn’t the code was dugg down.  Eventually digg caved.  I have a few thoughts on this:

• People went nuts because someone was trying to delete something as simple as a hex code off the Internet.  It’s not just about cesorship or just about DRM.  The idea that someone would try to delete something off the internet is offensive, scary, and revolting.
• The code is unimportant.  Most people don’t know what to do with it and those that do will get it either way.  Reminds me of the history of the 21 Club.  Coincidentally, I had lunch there today.
• The RIAA, MPAA, AACS, and others need to stop treating “consumers” like criminals.  We’re customers, not criminals.  Make a worthwhile product and people will buy it.  It’s a bad thing when your “customers” hate your guts.
• Yesterday’s Digg riot will go down as a significant moment in the history of the Internet.  It’s a day when a Top 90 site had to face a digital revolt over bad policy.  The site’s own features were used against it.

There are plenty of news articles on this all over the place, so I am going to link to something else.  The cynics at Something Awful had a lot of interesting things to say.  Check them out here and here.

Update: And the You Tube responses are just hysterical.

Last night I saw an article pop up on Digg titled: Vista sales propel Microsoft’s profits to almost $5 BILLION.  It states that “Microsoft Corp. posted a 65 percent rise in quarterly profit Thursday, topping Wall Street estimates thanks to better than expected demand for its new Windows Vista operating system.”

What?  This can’t be true.  Some guy on the Internet just announced that Microsoft Is Dead.  Then some more people got together, declared victory for Apple (Apple’s role in Microsoft’s downfall), and pissed on Microsoft’s grave (gotta love Slashdot).

The blogosphere loves bombastic, NY Post worthy headlines about Microsoft’s demise; especially where Apple fanboys hangout.  The fact of the matter is that Microsoft is flawed, but fine.  Microsoft isn’t going anywhere.

Here’s a prediction on the future of the home PC/OS.  Apple and Microsoft will both have a stake in it, and a large number of Mac buyers will kick in a few extra bucks to run Parallels/Fusion/Boot Camp/etc..  People will do this because they still want to run their Windows apps as seamlessly as possible while playing with their Apple toys.

I found an incredibly useful tool that allows you to convert just about any file type to any other similar file type.  MP3 to AAC, WMV to AVI, DOC to PDF, etc.  This tool also allows you to enter a URL and convert the content to another format.  That means that you can convert any YouTube video to any video format and store it on your machine.  SWEET

http://www.zamzar.com